Hikaru of the Heian court
by Waiting ON a wish
Summary: Hikaru had a secret hobby. He was absolutely facinated by the Heian period court, and here comes a ghost from the court of that periode. One day he will become a real noble! Warning Slash. underage AU
1. Chapter 1

Ch. 1

Shindo Hikaru was a normal 'cool' pre-teen boy. He played soccer, talked about the popular anime's like Naruto and Bleach, and got bad grades in school.

But Hikaru had a secret. A secret that he felt would make him uncool, un-normal, if anyone ever found out, and as such he kept it secret.

Shindo Hikaru found the Heian period absolutely fascinating. He loved the clothing, the manners, the speech, the music and even the poems.

He had first learned about the time period while being bored at his grandfather's place. His grandfather, wanting to keep Hikaru's destructive tendencies, which normally came out when he was bored, down, had put on an old movie, which took place at the curt during de Heian period.

He had been hooked since.

But due to his insistence on keeping his 'uncool' obsession secret, even from his parents and grandfather, the only way he ever learned anything about the Heian period, was through period movies and television dramas. Such was life for a popular pre-teen Japanese boy.

As all thing were wont to do, being popular costed money, and as his parents had cut out his allowance due to his exceptional bad grades, (seriously he was proud of his grades, it took real talent and work to make them so bad, I mean getting an eight percent on the social studies exam. You had to be both a retard and a recluse to score that low. It wasn't like Hikaru was a genius or anything, but he could have easily scored a 90 on that test, even without actually opening his book, which he had actually done, how else would he know what to write to get almost everything wrong. It wasn't like he liked school, or hated it, but he was bored, and had long since decided that being popular was all that school was about, and none of the smart kids were ever popular.) So now he was raiding his grandfather's shed for old, useless, unlamented, but sellable stuff, with his childhood friend Fujisaki Akari, so he could get some money to buy manga and ramen with.

…o0O0o…

It had been yesterday that he had found the old goban with the blood on it, and now he found out that that weird ass ghost who had attached itself to him was a court member from the Heian period. And he wanted to play Go, more than anything. Well, he might not be perceived as very smart, whether this was true or not didn't matter, but he knew when to spot a possibility for a good deal.

He would let the ghost, let Sai, play go through him, meanwhile he would learn everything there was to know about the Heian period from him, and as a bonus he would get to learn to play Go, or at least let Sai play go, against his grandfather, and thereby earning some money from bets. Money his grandfather wouldn't tell anyone about, or risk losing his playing partner, and thereby giving Hikaru a secret income he could use on his REAL hobby, and not using it on what popular kids used their allowances on.

Maybe, if he was lucky, he would even get enough money to buy a koto, his absolute favorite of the Heian period instruments, and maybe even somehow find some clothing like the ones Sai was using… he slowly came out of his fantasy when a wave of misery, so deep it made him feel like throwing up, came over him, and as he lifted his head, he saw that the misery had to have come from the ghost. He had been quiet for too long, and Sai must have thought that he would deny him the possibility of playing Go. For someone who died for Go, and then spent a thousand years as a ghost bound to a goban, without ever being able to play, just because of that love, being unable to play, when he finally had the chance to communicate, must absolutely break his heart.

Before the misery he was feeling through his connection to Sai would make him actually throw up, he started talking.

"I'll make you a deal!" it was yelled, and out loud, due to the utter misery he was feeling, in the middle of the class, during the test. Everyone turned and looked weirdly at him, and the sensei almost fell out of his chair, due to the shock. Akari hurriedly excused him, again with the story of him fainting and getting picked up by the ambulance. While before, when she had explained it due to his shocked exclamation upon discovering that the ghost was still there, everyone had been excited and in awe, now everyone looked worried and a little scared. They thought he was unstable. He would have a lot to do to make up for this hit to his popularity, but as of now he just waved them away, and pretended to focus on his paper, while continuing to talk with Sai, this time in his mind.

"I'll make you a deal!" he repeated. "I'll let you play Go, I even have the first player for you to play, if you do something for me…" "What-What, I'll do anything... but… what can I do, in a ghost, the only thing I can even touch is you?" Sai started excitedly, but slowly tapered off into a questioning, apprehensive tone.

Hikaru tried to explain his dilemma in a way that Sai would understand, but it was first when Sai noticed the easy with which he was writing the test, (due to being distracted with talking to Sai he didn't notice what he was doing and automatically wrote all the right answers) that he believed Hikaru's words on how he viewed the school as being a place to learn to be popular, and not to get high grades. It wasn't like the grades mattered. He would have to sit an entrance exam anyway, so it didn't matter what they thought he could do, it only mattered what he actually could do when it came to the time to go to middle school.

Finally though Sai agreed that that way at least Hikaru got something out of going to school, after all getting and nursing a social network could only be good for his future life and career as a learned man. He was only just introduced to the 20th century, and hadn't understood that the level of schooling Hikaru received was needed, even if he just wanted to be a menial worker.

Sai found it interesting that Hikaru was so interested in his, Sai's, own time period, and happily agreed to the deal, telling Hikaru, that he was a noble, and would teach Hikaru everything about how to be a noble at the courts in the Heian period, including manners. The last part was said with an uncharacteristic hard look at Hikaru.

And so started Hikaru's time of learning from Sai about the Heian period, and of course of finding partners for Sai to play, mustn't forget that, he didn't like feeling like throwing up again.


	2. Chapter 2

Ch. 2

Sai adored and breathed Go, he had died, and then continued living on for a thousand years as a ghost, caught in a goban, for it. But it wasn't all that he was.

He was definitely a product of his time, as such family honor meant everything to him, and part of that honor was in how he conducted himself as a noble at the court.

This meant that Hikaru was hit with slaps to the back of his head with the fan, yelled at and generally haunted every time he would slush in his seat, have a messy writing, or spoke informally to anyone not immediate family (luckily Akari was counted within that exception when Hikaru pointed out that she would find it weird for him to change the way he addressed her, considering they had been friends since they were 3 years old, and that that would defeat the purpose of keeping his obsession secret).

Even though Sai was after him for his supposed bad manners all the time, and even had him up at four in the morning to practice sword-fighting in the garden, with a sword that had been taken from his grandfathers shed, (good lord he had more old stuff in there than most middle sized museums) Hikaru had more fun, and was thus more relaxed, than ever since he discovered that school wasn't going to teach him anything he couldn't learn on his own.

He was being taught, as you would a young noble child of the Heian period, but with the expectations to keep up, Sai himself had had on his shoulders when he was Hikaru's age, or would have had, hadn't he had 3 elder brothers; one to take over as the head of the family, which was the part about estate and money management, and generally taking care of a household and a family; one to go to the army as an officer, this was the tactical training and sword-fighting, and would include bow and arrow shooting as soon as Sai found a way to instruct him within the immediate area; and one to become a state man, which was where his skills in writing and political maneuvering, including knowing the law and languages came in, it wasn't enough to know Japanese and English according to Sai. Speaking, writing and knowing the cultural differences of Korean, Chinese and surprisingly French, was also needed. The last language was included when Sai learned about the globalization, and of French being one of the big languages spoken the world over.

All that was taught to Hikaru, and also included was what every noble man, no matter their place in the family, must now, such as how to write a haiku poem, how to horseback ride, and wasn't that a weird thing to ask his parents for, how to walk, talk and sit in seiza, and, to Hikaru's great enjoyment, he would learn how to play all of the courts instruments, and on his own tentative inquirers he would also learn how to sew, childrearing, and all of the other things a noble, or indeed any, woman during that period would know how to do.

How Sai knew what a woman should be able to do, or indeed knew how to so well as to teach it to Hikaru, was a mystery that went unanswered.

All in all Hikaru's time was packed. And he wasn't allowed to slack on his school work either, although he could score as low in his tests as he wanted, Sai said with a satisfied smile. "Cunning" he said "is an important thing to train, without it you won't go far up in the world."

Through all of this he also had to convince his grandfather to play Go against him. A quest made much more difficult due to the fact that he had to come up with a convincing story for how he got as good as Sai was. Being the emperor's instructor wasn't for armatures after all. Meanwhile he would have to talk formally to his grandfather, due to him being, in Sai's eyes, the head of the family. Not an easy task at all. His grandfather was super observant, and seldom let anything go.

…o0O0o…

He was right in his suspicion that his popularity would take a nose dive due to his classmates thinking he wasn't all right in the head, after his exclamation during the test last week. Normally he would fix it all by going to the arcade with the guys or hand out at the McDonalds, convincing them that he was quite normal. But he still didn't get any allowances, and even though he had acted convincingly apologizing for his act of thievery in the shed, and thereby hadn't been grounded, his parents kept asking where he was going. Apparently they were very concerned over his health after his visit to the hospital.

Quite frankly he was at his wits end, and had absolutely no idea of what to do, to get his popularity back. It was only due to his habit of speaking to himself when he was in his room that he got help. He had forgotten that Sai was always there, and when he was grumbling over his new problem, he was interrupted by him.

After a short explanation, which shouldn't have been needed, as Sai had been there to see the looks he was given, Sai came with a solution.

Or maybe a solution was to strong a word.

He explained that when he had first come to court to be the emperors Go instructor, he had been seen as the weird kid from the countryside, and had had to work his way up in the esteem of the rest of the court-members eyes.

He told of how he slowly worked on the other nobles one as a time, and how he didn't overlook the servants, but worked on his esteem among them as well. How word of his character had spread among the servants first and that due to that it became easier to be seen as an upstanding man, among the nobles.

At first Hikaru didn't know how to translate court behavior to how to win over school children, but after having observed his classmates, and their actions in class, and the clubs, he understood.

He started helping the unpopular kids who were being picked on, started talking to the girls about their boy troubles, not that he understood why someone would want a boy- or girlfriend at the age of 12, and talked with the popular children, not as he had before within groups, but two on two, and instead of making jokes and only talking about popular subjects, he talked about what problems they had, and what their dreams were. And again and again he explained his little lie about his exclamation, and told them that he was yelling to god, because he was at his ropes end due to a persistent headache. A stupid story, but they all believed it. After all, he had never acted as if he wasn't right in the head or schizophrenic before.

Slowly but surely he became popular again. And this time it wasn't only among 'the cool kids', but also among the girls, the geeks and the losers. He was everyone's favorite person to go to, if you had a problem, or just needed a good time.

Hikaru became more and more happy to have Sai haunting him. He was a big help in his everyday life, and he helped him get the knowledge and skills to act like a Heian period noble, as he had wanted to, since he was nine years old and saw that old movie at his grandfather's place.

But he had a promise to keep, and as such, two weeks after his little trip to the hospital, and first meeting with Sai the ghost, he stood in front of his grandfather's house.


	3. Chapter 3

Ch. 3

At first the act of playing Sai's hand during his games with Hikaru's grandfather was dead boring. He didn't understand the game, and quite frankly he wasn't interested in learning a 'boring old man's game'.

But after the first three visits, Sai started to talk to him during the game. At first he tried to explain the game. But when he saw that Hikaru wasn't really interested in the game (he was only really interested in being able to win against his grandfather to get some money, but Sai seemed so happy to play so he felt it didn't really matter), he started to talk about the importance of the game at the Heian court. How everyone knew how to play, even if most weren't that good at it, and how it increased the analytic ability of the player, how it was a proof of nobility to be able to play, and play well.

That lighted an interest in Hikaru. He started to ask about the rules and strategies of the game. And he had to admit; it had been fun to see his grandfather's face when he (read Sai) played him the first time, even though it was rather tedious to try to talk about a game he hardly understood. In the end he just ended up repeating what Sai was saying.

It was soon proven that Hikaru's intelligent and analytical mind wasn't limited to school work and soccer, as he soon understood the game, and could analyze the moves, even though his play was at armature level, at best.

…o0O0o…

Hikaru had, before the first game against his grandfather, betted on the outcome. And even though he wasn't completely sure of how good his personal ghost was (the game could have easily have changed a lot over time after all), losing would only have resulted in him taking care of his grandfather's garden for a couple of weeks. A sacrifice he was willing to take for the pleasure of learning how to live as a Heian period court noble. That and the fact that should Sai actually win, he would finally have a little pocket money, even though he wouldn't be able to use it on the stuff he normally used his allowance on, due to the fear of his parents discovering that he had money when he should be suffering without, being a bad student.

Of course Sai won. And even though they had only betted 2000 yen, his grandfather was willing to pay him 500 yen for every game they played, if he was willing to discuss the game afterwards. It was almost like having a job. A teaching job in Go. And as he started to understand the game, he actually found pleasure in both the playing, and the discussion afterwards.

It had been a month since their first game, where he played his grandfather every day, due to not having the money to hang out with his friends from school, and he was beginning to understand the game well enough to want to play.

In the beginning he played against Sai, but even though he learned a lot, he wanted to play a game where he had a chance of winning. It had seemed like he actually did very well against Sai, but when he got a little too proud of his game, and started to say that Sai wasn't all that good. Sai explained that what they were playing were called shidougo, and were in fact the act of teaching someone go, through the game, and the goal in shidougo wasn't to win, but to teach. Not believing Sai, and feeling superior in his ignorance, they played a real game, and he was throughout trounced. Within placing the first 10 stones, he was at a disadvantage, and he gave up before they reached yose.

He ended up talking to his grandfather.

"Grandpa where did you learn to play Go?" Hikaru asked in a break between two games.

"Why do you ask?" Came it suspiciously from Shindo Heihachi, he knew his grandson, he always had some kind of plot going.

"It's not that I don't like playing with you, and I'll definitely continue. I just want to play others ass well, so I was just wondering if you knew of anyone who wanted to play, anyone." He ended up almost begging his grandfather.

"Why don't you just go to a go-salon? There are lot of players in those." At Hikaru's confused face Heihachi became suspicious, "Where did you learn to play anyway? If you don't know of go-salons then where did you get so good?"

Luckily they had just ended a game, and Hikaru hurriedly started discussing the game, this time without just repeating what Sai was saying, to make his grandfather think about something else.

…o0O0o…

It was a week later, and after having taken a day off from playing with his grandfather to go riding for the first time with his mother, that he started searching for a go-salon.

While he was walking up and down the streets of Tokyo, looking for a sign from a salon, he thought of the day long excursion to the horse-riding place with his mother.

**Flashback**

He had talked with his mother about going horseback riding a couple of weeks ago, and after having reached an agreement of him doing a list of chores a week, showing that he could be responsible, she agreed to take him.

She obviously thought it would be a onetime thing, and that he would hate being surrounded by girls and big animals, something he never before had shown any interest in.

As they arrived at the horse farm with a connected riding school at the outskirts of Tokyo, next to a temple and a little forest with tracks for horseback riding and walking in it, and Hikaru, for the first time in his life, saw a real life horse, he fell in love.

It was such a beautiful creature, and when one of them took down the enclosure at top speed, or at least what seemed like top speed, as it was so fast, he wanted nothing more than to sit on its back while it was doing it.

His mother wanted him on the back of a horse, starting to ride in circles from the get go, and if he was honest, he wanted to do that too, but Sai insisted on him learning how to ready a horse for riding first. So while his mother stood bewildered and looked on, he was taught how to care for a horse.

The riding teacher looked rather satisfied, that he wanted to know how to care for the horse, and not just how to ride it, and as a result, they got the time it took to ready the horse, and take care of it afterwards, without having to pay for it.

The horse he was giving to ride on was rather fat, and not fast at all, but it was steady, and as the teacher said, wouldn't try to make him fall of.

As it was, Hikaru absolutely loved riding. It was fun, and even at the low speed the horse was going at, within a boring enclosure, he felt like he was flying.

In the beginning Sai was just walking alongside him, telling him what to do to have a better posture while riding, but after half an hour went by, he was sitting behind Hikaru, on the horse, enjoying the ride as much as Hikaru.

When they rode on the train home, and after having used most of the ride speaking about what an amazing experience it was to ride the horse, take care of the horse and everything else about the horse, he turned toward his mother and told her.

"I want to do that again, and maybe, when I get better, I could get a horse?" at his mother's stricken look he hastily continued, in a small voice. "not an expencive one of course, and I could probably get granddad to pay some of it, I just really want to continue riding. Please don't say no, you don't have to say yes right now, but please don't say no."

At his mother's hesitant nod, he smiled happily, first at her, then at an excited Sai, but didn't say anything, due to not wanting his mother to think him too immature to ever getting a horse.

**Flashback end**

As he was walking down a street with lot of bars and restaurants, he saw a sign which said Natsu Go.

As he entered the go-salon, he was met with a wall of smoke. After he had coughed up his lungs, and almost left the building, but didn't due to noticing the sound of go checkers hitting wood, he tried to go to one of the gobans, to see how people here was playing.

He was stopped by a woman behind a counter, just inside the door.

"Wait a minute. You have to register and pay before playing." Pay? But he didn't need anyone to teach him.

As he said so to the woman, a man, who had just finished his game at a nearby table, started laughing. The woman behind the counter looked rather amused too.

"Boy, you pay extra for a teacher, and you won't find one here, the thing you pay for here is using the facility. Your use wears on the gobans, and you use light and space under this roof to play too. Think of it as renting a board." The man's big grin was rather off putting, but what he said made sense.

"How much per game?" "You don't pay per game. After paying you can play as many games as you want." Was the answer from the counter lady. It was rather uplifting; he had about 7 hours until his mother would begin wondering where he was, as she thought he was at his grandfather's place. Of course his grandfather knew that he went searching for a go-salon, but unless questioned, he wouldn't tell. He could do a lot of games in that time.

"It will be ¥ 500." Was the answer. Well that wasn't too much, and if he only came once a week, and made sure that on those days he would have a lot of time, then it wouldn't be too much of a setback, in his plan to collect enough money to afford a Koto, or the rest of the things he would need to buy to be able to learn all that a Heian court noble was supposed to be able to do.

As it was, he had ¥ 40.000. As he was paying the woman, he looked at the man who had explained why he needed to pay, and asked him if he wanted to play.

"I'm not very good, but I'm a fast learner, so what do you say, wanna play?"

 _AN: answer to my first review;_

 _Thank you for the review, it is the first one I got, and your words leave a warm feeling in my tummy. To answer your question; yes the M rating is for the future. I doubt it will be explicit, but there will definitely be semi explicit sexual relation, and as such it will be above the T rating. This is a story I write on the side when I get tired of writing on the Glee fiction I am primarily writing on, but I have a lot of ideas for the future of this fic. And are looking forward to where it leads me._

 _So hang on I will definitely finish this story._


	4. Chapter 4

Ch. 4

Hikaru's mom had apparently discussed the horse thing with his father, and they had agreed, that should Hikaru at least pass all of his tests, they would enroll him in hors-riding lessons, and would discuss the getting him a horse thing in about a year, if he still wanted it at that time.

"But" she warned him "if you ever score below 80% after you have gotten all of your grades up, we will stop your riding lessons, and if it is after, not saying you get one, but if it is after you have gotten a horse, we will sell it again, unless there is a **very** good reason for your lowered score."

Well talk about incentive for actually answering the tests in school. Looks like he would have to actually do the work.

Suddenly he panicked "what about my popularity?" he asked Sai "I really worked hard on getting and staying popular, now I'm just going to become one of the nerds."

Sai started to panic too, running back and forth in the room. And then he suddenly became serious, something Hikaru hadn't seen outside of go games and his lessons in becoming a noble of the Heian court.

"Stop being so worried, you have worked really hard on your popularity, it isn't all superficial now, they actually admire you. Getting better grades won't be detrimental to that, on the contrary, you will probably become even more popular, if you just remember to care for your reputation and connections. And even if it means you will have to work a little harder for your popularity, isn't it worth it? I mean you will probably start getting an allowance again, and there could be other perks to it too, other than getting a horse."

…o0O0o…

His sword lessons were going well to. He was probably never going to become a master of the sword, but even with his apparent coordination problem, a ting he never knew he had, as he had always done well at soccer, it was going forward, and within another half a year, he would be ready for fighting against someone else. Who that someone else was going to be, he didn't know, as Sai couldn't handle a sword, but Sai assured him that they would find a solution.

He had also been locking for a place to learn to shoot with bow and arrow. It didn't need to have good instructors, as Sai could easily instruct him. But he did need the facilities. The big problem wasn't finding somewhere he could afford, but rather finding somewhere that didn't need parental agreement. Because his parents wasn't going to pay for a shooting club, on top of horse riding lessons. And there were no way he was going to tell his parents about his little job, playing against his grandfather. They would take away his money, and deny him the right to earn more.

In the end he ended up aiming at a middle school which had arrow shooting as an after school activity. The schools name was Kaio middle school, and to Sai's great enjoyment, there was also a go club at the school.

…o0O0o...

He had lost terribly to the stranger, whose name he found out was Kawai. He was really good, but when they were discussing the game afterwards, it was like Hikaru could finally see the whole universe, where upon the stones were stars. He knew what he should have done to win, and as he communicated his understanding, to Kawai-san and Sai, Sai couldn't help but be excited over how good Hikaru had become, just by watching Sai play his grandfather, and the few overwhelmingly un-even games between Sai and Hikaru.

To Kawai-san's great surprise, after Hikaru had convinced him to play another game, at their second game Hikaru won. Only by half a moku, but he still won. They would have played another game, to make it best out of 3, but Kawai-san had to leave, as he worked as a taxi driver, and had to go back to work.

While their two games had been intense, they hadn't taken all that long. As such Hikaru still had 5 and a half hours left to play in. And play he did. While there were no children in this go salon, a fact which just convinced Hikaru further that go was an old man game, the men, and lone woman, who played in the salon, was more than willing to play Hikaru. It soon became standard, that he would lose the first game, ask for a second, and win the second.

Slowly he started to understand the different ways to play go.

7 hours and 15 minutes after entering the salon, he ended the last game, but before he could discuss the game with his opponent, he accidentally glanced at the clock.

"No, no, no, no, I'm late; my mom's going to kill me if I don't get home in time for dinner. I'm sorry, but I have to go… bye." With those words, he grabbed his back pack and jacket, and run out of the door, Sai on his heels.

"Why didn't you tell me how late it is? If we don't get home in time, mom will flip out… at least I have already done my homework up to her standards! Come on… we have to hurry."

The two figures ran, as if the dogs of hell were after them, one; a boy with blonde bangs, and a rather filthy mouth. The second reproving the first one, although he was the only one who could see and hear him, while wearing a high hat and a flowering white kimono.

…o0O0o…

Hikaru ended up coming to that go salon every Sunday. And while he always let his grandfather play against Sai, in that salon, it was Hikaru's go that was played.

Slowly Sai started to beg for more diversity in his players, and Hikaru found another place to play, this time as Sai.

It was a Korean go salon, and most of the people there didn't speak Japanese very well, so while he spent many hours there, and learned to communicate the after game discussion, without words, he hardly spoke while there.

Friday after school was the time that was reserved for the Korean go Salon, and while he was irritated over using the time he could earn money playing go, to spend money playing go, fair was fair. And for that little act of kindness towards Sai, who Hikaru by now saw as his teacher, he was given many times again, in the form of lessons in both go, but also in the rest of the things he was learning. Sai even told him stories about his upbringing, something Hikaru obviously enjoyed.

…o0O0o…

Hikaru kept his part of the deal with his mother. Not because he was all honorable, a part of being noble that Sai still had difficulties instilling in him, but because he **really** wanted a horse.

In the beginning, the teachers at school accused him of cheating. But after he was put in a bare room, to take the next test, and he aced it (well at least he got 91%) he was believed to have done his tests and homework on his own. Unfortunately this resulted in him getting asked far more during class, which again resulted in him having to pay attention.

The days of secret manga reading during class were over.


	5. Chapter 5

Ch. 5

That Saturday Hikaru's mom and dad was out on a date, it was something they had arranged months ago, but they forgot to ensure that Hikaru's grandfather could look after him while they were gone.

Luckily he could take him, even though he had guests that evening, but at least he could ensure that Hikaru went to bed at the right time.

While Hikaru didn't look forward to a night spent among old people, talking about old people stuff, he did look forward to trying to make food himself for the first time. While he had prepared for making some of the old recipes, that Sai knew, for a while now, his mother hadn't wanted him to work in the kitchen.

Luckily his grandfather wasn't against him trying his luck in the kitchen, probably because one of his old friends was bringing some sushi his wife had made.

As such, as soon as school was over for the day, the two cohorts hurried to Hikaru's grandfather's place, to start the first lesson in the kitchen.

Doing the lesson at his grandfather's place was much better anyway, as his kitchen applicants were rather old, especially compared to the ones at hikaru's place. And as Sai had learned to make food over open fire, simple was best.

It went as you could expect, food stuff all over the kitchen, but in the end, what they put in the oven and fried in a pan, looked and smelled like it should.

While they were waiting for what was on the pan, was ready to be taken of, and the next to be put on, Hikaru asked Sai why he knew how to make food. After all he was male, and a noble at that, so it was kind of confusing, as to why he would have learned how to do it. Not to mention he had told Hikaru that he knew how to act as a lady of the court as well.

It was with a red face that Sai admitted, that his mother had wished for a daughter, and as his father had both a heir and a couple of spares, his education was primarily left to his mother, at least until he was 13 years of age. And while she had loved him enough to want him to do well, and let him be educated in what a male should know, she had also educated him like she would have done a daughter. Ashamed he even admitted that he was thought everything about how to attract a noble MALE suitor, the reason for why he had never married, as he would always look through the young lady's attempts to attract him.

At that confession Hikaru stood staring at Sai for such a long time, that hadn't his grandfather put his head trough the doorway, to check up on him, he would probably have started a fire, due to the burned food on the pan.

After he saved the rest of the food, and put the next portion on the pan, he turned towards Sai and said;

"I want to learn that too. I want to learn everything your mother thought you. When I watched those period movies, the ladies of the court were so dreamy; I want to be able to be like that too."

…o0O0o…

Slowly the year went by.

Hikaru and Sai played go, both against Hikaru's grandfather and each other, but also against strangers.

In the beginning they only played for fun, but after a while, Sai's games started to become shidougo, and as they became more and more popular, Hikaru started to ask for money for teaching. The good thing about playing teaching games for money at the Korean salon was that he could play more than one at a time, and thereby earning more money. Another positive thing with playing more than one at a time was the fact that Sai was more challenged when he had to split his attention between games.

Hikaru started middle school and, to Akari's great sorrow, he indeed went on to go to Kaio middle school.

He thought for a long while on entering the go club, but ended up deciding that, as he was playing every day anyway, he didn't need it, and entering would take time out of his shooting lessons, and possibly his horseback riding lessons.

Even then, he did hear about the son of a famous go player, who didn't enter either, although his reason for not entering was, that he was not allowed to play on armature level, as he was becoming a pro player.

He continued his lessons in sword fighting, and trough one of his contacts in Natsu go salon, he got a sparring partner. Now he not only trained for two hours every morning by himself, he also had sparring matches every Sunday morning, before his trip to the go salon with the father of the 20 year old he was sparring with.

As his first try in the kitchen was a great success, his grandfather, who was suffering without good homemade food, since his wife's death 3 years ago, insisted on him making food every Saturday, after their normal game of go. He even played 'blind go' against his grandfather, or rather repeated Sai's words as for where the stones should be placed, while Sai sat opposite his grandfather, while working in the kitchen.

Not all of the food became a success, and in the beginning he burned about half of it, but slowly he became better, and started more complex recipes.

At the horse farm Hikaru fell in love with one of the privately owned horses. It was a 2 year old chestnut colored colt, and the owner, who only had had it for half a year, didn't want it anymore. On promise that he would definitely buy it, and that he would take care of it from now on, the owner agreed to keep it, until Hikaru could either earn the money for it, or convince his parents that he should get it. He almost had all the money, but he knew it would be a problem to explain where it came from to his parents.

As it was, Hikaru was now earning about 100.000¥ a month, with his different teaching jobs, and that wasn't including the 1500¥ he got in allowance each month from his parents.

Now Hikaru could easily chose to use the money, there were a lot of stuff he wanted, so it wouldn't have been hard. But he had a goal. He wanted to buy a house, like the mansions of old, and to buy such a property, in Tokyo, was expensive, so he needed to put the money aside now.

For a while he thought of becoming, or rather letting Sai become, a professional go player, but the one time he visited the Insei institute, he was scared away. They were all so serious; it took away the joy in playing.

And so the year went on, Hikaru went to school, god good grades, as according to the deal with his mother, played go and learned to become a perfect little noble of the Heian period. Such it went on, at least until one day, Hikaru wanted to show Sai a new idea for his go, while in another part of town than his usual two go salons were in.

 _AN/_

 _Answer to Yona0; I write the length that fells natural, I expect that when Hikaru becomes older, I will write longer chapters, but until then, they will probably stay short._


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